my college experience

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wow. Except I'm not as smart as you I think I can relate. I like novels with an intellectual meaning but if it's just relationship-based I can't understand it. I am considered good at chemistry compared to most people (I get 80 something which is hard.) My math is bad but I'm one of the top students in English literature in school.

I think perhaps pharmacology would have suited you more. Creating drugs, using really sciency stuff, and fulfilling your underused intellect. It's also research-based, which might suit you. One of the top professions now is to be a biologist.

As for career my parents wanted me to do law. My mum nagged me into professsonal courses. I defied them and chose to do biochemistry. I start this october. My dad has got used to it though provided I become commercial-minded because you need social skills nad contacts in a profession and due to lack of this my dad didn't get far. Clever Aspies are usually suited to research. As a pharmacist you need to be more commercial-minded.

The money aspect really doesn't interest me. At this point, I am honestly just more concerned with finding a job that I can be happy with and not have to deal with the anxiety that goes along with all of this.

However my brain is wired, or miswired... I think I really hold an advantage over most people when something really interests me. I can completely absorb the literature or concepts of whatever I'm learning... but only if it interests me.

In research, I think I could do absolutely amazing things if the opportunities present themselves to me. If I am forced to be in a retail situation, like what most pharmacists do, I really fear simply losing my mind. I am dealing with honestly 200 to 300 people a day in situations that make me feel like I am crawling out of my own skin.

I need a desk somewhere, research papers, models, and information so I can really devote myself. Sadly, I have to work this s**t retail job to pay my bills. I feel more uncomfortable every single day, it is not getting better. I have had the same job for 5 years, too.

If you feel you can handle that understanding of complex biopathways, biochemistry is a very difficult, but very rewarding field if it works out for you.

If you're going off to college, I would take it slow and don't throw yourself into it too deep at first. It sounds like you're from Europe, so I'm not sure how the educational system is organized there. In the states, we have community colleges. I should gone there first to test my waters in not only school, but my comfort level around a completely new social situation. Good luck to you.

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm actually from Asia but I'm doing the A-Levels (UK exam) in a private college here. I begin uni in london in fall. The A-Levels is like the first year of US uni courses.

if you like to figure out how stuff works than grad school can be a good choice. it is a pain, but if you choose your project and advisor carefully you can get freedom to explore and develop things. and maybe you can try to get into biochemistry or bioengineering graduate program but be careful about the field because lots of bio people are required to work in big collaborations (this would be a complete disaster for someone like me) due to the nature of the work.
I would love to see someone with a brain among bio-medical people because it looks like you described, lots of random info based on statistics. One of the problems (besides stupid education system) is that the body biochemistry is extremly complex and accessing what is really going on is difficult. Tools are rather poor and they constantly doing "animal models" to get some sense what is happening, and do some gene modifications. It would be a great progress if someone can get a better way of probing chemistry inside the body. Unfortunately many biophysicists do simulations of protein folding and such things without trying to solve these big things. I am trying to say that if you invent a mechanism/instrument to probe biological pathways directly it would be much easier/better that doing drug discovery standard ways.

woops, meant to edit, ended up deleting...

working in a small core group has never really been my issue. As long as the group is relatively stable. If the group I'm working with is constantly changing members, I probably wouldn't be able to stand it.

Villette, if you get accepted to better schools in US (ranking<50), grad school is completely covered with scholarship (tuition + living). This is mostly done for science majors not so much for others.
Biochemists do analysis of biomolecule interactions from what I know, for example how protein bids to some other molecule, what is the strength of the binding and so on. You should probably try to search wiki for more precise answer.

No it is not typical to get the masters and get back to research. Usually people finish phd on these scholarships., and there are problems with finding a job with bio-degrees with or without phd.